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A bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking to craft a compromise on energy legislation includes politically vulnerable members, according to a partial list of members obtained by The Hill.
Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Peterson (R-Pa.), who organized the group, have kept the list of participants under wraps since the recent announcement of its formal launch.
Abercrombie and Peterson previously indicated the complete list of members would be released last week but later reconsidered, saying certain members could be face political problems if their names were released.
Reps. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), Gene Green (D-Texas), Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), Nick Lampson (D-Texas), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) are part of the group, according to the list. The group met on Wednesday.
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) is also considering joining the group.
Nunes’s and Lampson’s offices confirmed they were members of the working group. A press secretary for Costa could neither confirm nor deny whether Costa has joined, but said the lawmaker regularly meets with colleagues to discuss energy issues. Offices for Tanner, Green, Boren and Shays did not return calls for comment.
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), who is also part of the group, said, “I’m going because [the group] is consistent with the concerns I have had for nearly four years now.”
Boyda and Lampson are top GOP targets this year; Democrats are gunning for Shays.
“Nancy is interested in what they are looking at, and … she plans to attend the meeting of the group,” said Boyda chief of staff Shanan Guinn.
The bill that is being crafted breaks significantly from Democratic leadership on the topic of offshore drilling.
Boren, Costa, Green, Lampson and Nunes twice voted no on the Democratic leadership’s “use it or lose it” energy drilling bill.
The bipartisan group’s bill, however, could also include language that would release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and limit speculation, which are ideas backed by leadership.
Drilling in the protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not a part of the group’s plan.
On Thursday, House Democrats will bring up their third-straight energy bill on the suspension calendar. But instead of calling on the president to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and send it right to the market, Democrats are backing a proposal put together by Reps. Lampson and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) to direct the secretary of Energy to arrange an oil reserve “swap.”
This proposal will likely be far easier for Republicans to swallow.
The Consumer Energy Supply Act would require the government to trade or sell 70 million barrels of “light, sweet” crude to domestic energy companies in exchange for an equal amount of heavy crude.
Mike Soraghan contributed to this article. Editor’s note: Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) was included on a list of group members. However, his spokesman Jesse Christopherson said while Green shares some of the group's goals he is not officially a member. |
